We believe that one of the more important aspects of batting is the batter's stance. While there may be only one way to hold a bat, there are many ways to hit a ball. Many elements go into a good batting stance and the apparatus of the present invention provides a device for perfecting the batter's stance and improving power of the batter's swing. In the development of a good swing, we believe that a hitter who drops the back elbow in the act of swinging will be "hacking up" on the ball. The proper stance for a batter, as the pitch is thrown and the thrown ball is awaited, is to have the wrists about even with the rear foot, and held at about chest height. If the rear forearm is on a plane at a right angle to the body, then an ideal stance is provided. In this way, the arms are being used as the pitch approaches. The stance, however, will be spoiled if, in the first stage of swinging the bat, that is the act of swinging the torso, the rear elbow is allowed to drop and if the bat is extended because the wrists are prematurely twisted. Such dropping of the rear elbow while swinging cannot be accomplished without artificially twisting the wrists, which in turn means that the power of the wrist snap, a requirement of good hitting, is lost to the batter. Therefore, as the player commences the swing, there should be no sudden drop of the rear elbow or extension of the bat. Rather, the elbow should travel, as much as possible, along a horizontal plane, at least until the swinging bat is parallel with the ball being thrown. Moreover, at the same time as the torso is being twisted, the bat must not "swing out", that is the bat must travel in a first radius until a point where the bat is about parallel to the path of the ball being thrown. As the bat passes over the parallel point in the batter's swing, the batter's arms are extended in a V-shape, which may be called the power portion of the swing. In this second portion of the swing, the winging bat describes a second radius, and it is during this second portion of the swing that the bat makes contact with the pitched ball.
In addition to the foregoing requirements, the front elbow also must be considered with respect to level swinging. If the front elbow is held too low, it causes the player to "hit down" on the ball. When the back elbow is held correctly, and the grip on the bat is right, the front elbow will almost automatically do what it is supposed to do for the batter. When the batter swings correctly without dipping the back elbow, and the wrist is snapped correctly, and if the player has a good line of sight on the ball being pitched, a ball can be well hit. The batter will twist the torso up to a predetermined point, without the elbows dipping and without extending the bat, the wrists will then be snapped to assume the V-shaped position, and the ball will be hit correctly.